


Out of Place

by Revieloutionne



Category: Ultraman Nexus, ウルトラマンＸ | Ultraman X
Genre: Gen, Noa is there for a second if you know what to look for, mention of Ultraman Zero and Nexus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:41:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23354116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Revieloutionne/pseuds/Revieloutionne
Summary: After she gets home, Tachibana wonders if perhaps Nexus had chosen her as a host in part because they'd known she would wind up in TLT's base like this
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15
Collections: Tokusatsu Flash Fluffathon





	Out of Place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beoluve](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beoluve/gifts).



> This wound up not being fluff in what I feel like is the traditional form, but it's not drama or trauma and there's humor to it, which based on what the prompt called for should be close enough

Zero had been visiting XiO (human-sized, and if Lieutenant Tachibana had to wager a guess as to why, she would put good money on “to maximize the crowd he was bragging to”), but something went wrong he left, and Tachibana found herself pulled through his dimensional portal in his wake, left behind as he continued on wherever it was he was going.

The view around her was beautiful, but the worlds branching and layered over each other would be too much for her human mind to take in were she not thankfully distracted by the panic resulting from her inability to breathe.

Fortunately, after only a few seconds, a familiar but formless presence nudged her through one of the dimensional walls surrounding her and she found herself standing in a dim hallway not unlike some of the maintenance areas of XiO’s headquarters.

“Hands up,” said the severe-looking woman in front of her with a gun. “Explain yourself.”

“I believe I’ve traveled away from my home universe,” Tachibana said, somehow relieved to see that the older man beside the woman appeared as confused as a stranger should be by this. “Can you tell me where I am?”

“A restricted facility,” the woman said.

“A TLT base,” the man said.

“Captain!”

“If this were Beast activity, Illustrator would have alerted us by now.”

“But—”

“Why do you look familiar?” Tachibana asked. “I’ve never heard of TLT.”

“I’ve never met you,” the woman said. “Captain, why would you give away—”

“Because she has a gun of her own, knows your safety is on, and is still cooperating.” Wakura said. “By all means remain cautious, Nagi, but stand down.”

“With all due respect, captain—”

“Oh!” Tachibana said. “You were in Nexus’s memories!”

“You met Nexus?” Wakura asked.

“You _were_ Nexus?” Nagi asked, lowering her gun.

“I was, briefly.” Tachibana said. “A Space Beast fled to my dimension and Nexus followed. Nexus allowed me to take their form and assist our own Ultraman in defeating it.”

“So your uniform…?” Wakura led.

“I am Lieutenant Sayuri Tachibana of XiO, an organization which I imagine is similar to TLT in that we contain and neutralize alien and monstrous threats to the safety of Earth.”

“That is more or less TLT’s mission, yes.” Wakura said. A young man in white suddenly appeared.

“There’s been a dimensional breach,” he said. “No signs of danger yet, but—oh, I see you already know.”

“Thank you, Illustrator,” Nagi said.

“Does he just... appear like that, often?” Tachibana asked.

“Wouldn’t you, if—” Illustrator said, suddenly tensing up. “A Beast has appeared north of Kawanehon. No, not a Beast, the readings are all wrong, but a monster of some sort. Get to the ops room, I’ll have the data we have onscreen for you once you get there.”

“And the stranger?” Nagi asked.

“The Lieutenant may be able to help,” Wakura said. “Obviously we can’t deploy her, but she has experience.”

* * *

The ops room also looked not unlike the maintenance areas of XiO, but Tachibana had far more tact than would allow making that comparison aloud. The tech was comparable to XiO’s, but the staffing levels seemed lacking – so far, even with alarms blaring Nagi and the captain were the only TLT members present. The young man in white faded into existence again, more slowly this time, possibly as a courtesy to Tachibana. If so, he wasn’t looking for any sort of acknowledgment of that as he immediately began reporting on the state of the monster.

“The non-Beast has been traveling along the banks of the Oi, both up- and downriver. We’re not sure what, if anything, is attracting or directing it.”

“Are there any signs of what it wants?”

“What it...” Nagi said.

“Wants?” Wakura finished.

“You know,” Tachibana said, “is it hostile? Is it protecting a nest? Has it been disturbed? Is it hangry? What does it want?”

“It’s a Beast,” Nagi said, “not a—”

“It’s not a Beast,” Illustrator corrected.

“It’s a _monster_ ,” Nagi said, “not a baby. Beasts don’t— _monsters_ don’t throw tantrums. They kill people.”

“Not all of them—”

“Look,” Nagi said, “I don’t know what kind of naive nonsense XiO lets you get away with, but—”

“Naive?” Tachibana scoffed. “I have dealt with invaders, destroyers, a living void that _killed our Ultraman,_ or was that the one that was sentient but not technically alive? That’s beside the point. The point is I have _also_ dealt with monsters that were just protective mothers, or children unaware their play was harmful, or that were just _tired_ and mad they weren’t asleep. Every time I or my superiors make a judgment call that we’re dealing with one of the latter I am _terrified_ we judged wrong, but it’s our duty to live peacefully with all the inhabitants of Earth that we can, even when the inhabitants are monsters. So, I’ll ask again: what does it want?”

“In all honesty,” Wakura said, “that’s… not something we’ve considered before.”

“I’ll grant that what I learned of the Space Beasts from Nexus indicates that if they’re all you ever dealt with you wouldn’t have had to,” Tachibana said, “but as this young man has been reminding you, this isn’t a Beast, so now is a good time to start.”

“You said the monster was traveling on the banks of the Oi, right?” Nagi asked Illustrator, eyeing one of the displays suspiciously.

“Yes,” Illustrator said. “I’ve been tracking its path on the map, and it matches—”

“Why is there no river in the satellite images?”

“No river? You’re right, it’s gone. Did the monster…?” Illustrator asked, tapping on a keyboard Tachibana couldn’t see. “No. The river has been diverted for construction of a—”

“Well there you go,” Tachibana said. “Its home has been disrupted and either it needs water it isn’t getting or possibly it’s just confused and upset by the change.”

“So like a regular animal,” Wakura said, “just… large?”

“Exactly.”

“How do you suggest we handle this?”

“I don’t know what resources TLT has available for this, of course,” Tachibana said, “as it sounds like your mission hasn’t included this kind of operation, but if this monster can be subdued or even just contained until the construction is completed and the river returned to its normal course, that would be ideal. Obviously, you’d keep an eye on it so that if its distress led it to become too much of a threat you’d have to take it out, but in this situation I would strongly recommend holding that as a last reserve.”

“It’s likely that we could use the Chesters to… herd it,” Nagi said, her expression clearly conveying how absurd she considered the situation.

“That’s smart,” Tachibana said. “Took XiO a few mistakes before we ever considered that, actually. You’ll need more than one pilot for that, though. Does your captain—”

“I don’t, but this isn’t our whole crew,” Wakura said, flipping open a device on his wrist, “and one of our best and brightest should be getting here any moment now.”

The door opened and the TLT member coming through was still zipping up his uniform jacket.

“Sorry I took so long, captain,” he said, “I—”

“ _Shogo?!_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> The monster gets to burrow snug in a nice muddy riverbed again and Tachibana does get home shortly
> 
> Zero learns absolutely nothing from this


End file.
